Epoch Time: Terrifying Plastic

How Tiny Pieces of Plastic in Our Oceans Are "Terrifying"

Posted on Aug 2nd, 2016

For years, fish have been feeding on tiny pieces of plastic in the ocean, mistaking them for food.

These “microplastics,” sometimes thinner than human hair, are now in 85–90 percent of some fish populations, albeit in relatively small quantities, says Richard Thompson, a marine biology professor at Plymouth University.

We humans then eat the fish.

Thompson, who has been studying the effects of plastic waste in the oceans for over 20 years, said the direct harm of microplastics to humans is not yet known.